PM Haider calls on Punjab governor, visits Iqbal tomb

LAHORE: A high-level Kashmir delegation led by Azad Jammu Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider has arrived here in the provincial capital, and visited the mausoleum of Allama Muhamad Iqbal, and met senior political and government officials.

Accompanied by the Minister for Information Mushtaq Minhas, the Kashmiri prime minister visited laid a floral wreath and offered Fateha at the mausoleum of the late national poet. Punjab Minister for Education Rana Mashood Ahmed Khan was also present on the occasion.

The visiting prime minister was presented a guard of honour upon his arrival at the historic fort. Speaking with journalists, Haider thanked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for raising Jammu Kashmir issue forcefully and effectively at the international level. He asked the world community to force India to leave the disputed state and free the land from its subjugation. He said that Kashmiri people had the right to lead peaceful lives according to their own aspirations in the light of the historic resolutions passed by the UN Security Council. To a question, he said that Kashmiri people on both sides of the Line of Control have full confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

About threats from Indian leadership, the Kashmiri prime minister said that India would never wage a war as it would incur huge financial losses. Once imposed, the war or any misadventure could go beyond the use of traditional weapons of warfare, he said. “We Kashmiri people do not want a war with India as confrontations wreak havoc everywhere,” he said.

To a query, he said that India’s war mongering was for mere public attention as elections were due in some of the Indian states. “India also wanted to divert attention from Jammu Kashmir issue,” he said in reference of recent statements of senior civilian and military leadership of India. “We can feel that India is irked by billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), knowing that the mega project was a game-changer for the national economy of Pakistan,” he said, and warned that India now wanted to isolate Pakistan on the diplomatic front. “We should aware of the situation,” he said. He also stressed the need to broaden the scope of the Kashmir Committee.